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BStanley346 on
TL:DR – I am new to cycling and have fallen in love with gravel. Will a gravel make a significant difference over my MTB?
Long winded – I have been cycling for about a year now, mostly mountain biking. While helping coach my sons MTB team we did a gravel ride and I fell in love with it. I have been riding 3-4 days a week on my Trek Fuel EX full suspension MTB half the time on the trails and the other half of the time on gravel. In an attempt to add some focus to my training I signed up for two gravel races, one in September (54miles) and another in October (60miles). I have been making significant progress and am confident that I will be able to complete the distances needed but while on a long ride today I got to questioning how big of a difference a gravel bike would make over my full squish MTB. I am on the fence about buying another bike and am afraid of investing in a gravel bike and being underwhelmed by the difference.
I have never ridden a road bike or a gravel bike before and while my LBS will let me take a bike around the block I definitely don’t feel like I will get a good impression until I can get out and really grind some miles.
TIA
uniballout on
If you are riding gravel, it will make a huge difference. I have a mountain bike for when I want to have fun in the woods. I have a gravel bike when I want to do long rides, group rides, or training intervals. I can also ride my gravel bike when trails are off limits due to rain.
It will be a huge difference on gravel and mixed surface roads, all my friends who were hold outs trying to gravel on 29er xc. Times have seen the light and bought gravel bikes after getting dropped repeatedly trying to keep up.
BikeBroken on
It’s going to be huge in a gravel race. I did a gravel race last month and there were some mountain bikes hanging on but nobody past the mid pack. So I guess you could try it would just be a lot harder and you wouldn’t be competitive. You would lose the most time on any road segments which gravel races tend to have a lot of.
kjlcm on
After finally getting a gravel bike, I honestly feel bad for people I see on mountain bikes on routes I can easily ride on my gravel. It’s just so much more fun to ride those trails on the gravel bike.
Stalkerfiveo on
It makes a huge difference. I have a power meter on my Canyon Lux (light and fast XC race setup) and my Titanium gravel bike. Averaging 200 watts on my local 20 mile gravel loop my gravel bike is about 6 minutes faster.
Worried-Metal5428 on
Watch dylan johnson. Imo if you arent racing no need for a gravel bike.
9 Comments
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TL:DR – I am new to cycling and have fallen in love with gravel. Will a gravel make a significant difference over my MTB?
Long winded – I have been cycling for about a year now, mostly mountain biking. While helping coach my sons MTB team we did a gravel ride and I fell in love with it. I have been riding 3-4 days a week on my Trek Fuel EX full suspension MTB half the time on the trails and the other half of the time on gravel. In an attempt to add some focus to my training I signed up for two gravel races, one in September (54miles) and another in October (60miles). I have been making significant progress and am confident that I will be able to complete the distances needed but while on a long ride today I got to questioning how big of a difference a gravel bike would make over my full squish MTB. I am on the fence about buying another bike and am afraid of investing in a gravel bike and being underwhelmed by the difference.
I have never ridden a road bike or a gravel bike before and while my LBS will let me take a bike around the block I definitely don’t feel like I will get a good impression until I can get out and really grind some miles.
TIA
If you are riding gravel, it will make a huge difference. I have a mountain bike for when I want to have fun in the woods. I have a gravel bike when I want to do long rides, group rides, or training intervals. I can also ride my gravel bike when trails are off limits due to rain.
Good video GCN about the topic…
https://youtu.be/QCb7PXPXf1M?feature=shared
It will be a huge difference on gravel and mixed surface roads, all my friends who were hold outs trying to gravel on 29er xc. Times have seen the light and bought gravel bikes after getting dropped repeatedly trying to keep up.
It’s going to be huge in a gravel race. I did a gravel race last month and there were some mountain bikes hanging on but nobody past the mid pack. So I guess you could try it would just be a lot harder and you wouldn’t be competitive. You would lose the most time on any road segments which gravel races tend to have a lot of.
After finally getting a gravel bike, I honestly feel bad for people I see on mountain bikes on routes I can easily ride on my gravel. It’s just so much more fun to ride those trails on the gravel bike.
It makes a huge difference. I have a power meter on my Canyon Lux (light and fast XC race setup) and my Titanium gravel bike. Averaging 200 watts on my local 20 mile gravel loop my gravel bike is about 6 minutes faster.
Watch dylan johnson. Imo if you arent racing no need for a gravel bike.